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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Dinosaurs & the prehistoric world
A field guide to 60 dinosaurs and prehistoric animals that once
lived in what is now North America. Featuring stunning
illustrations of each animal by world-famous artist Sergey
Krosovskiy and based on the latest paleontogical research, this
book provides information about the where and when the animals
lived, what they ate, and more.
A collaboration to excite the mind and dazzle the eye, probing such
mysteries as: Where the first dinosaurs appeared and how they
evolved; how the giant sauropods lived and reared their young;
hunting strategies among the predators; migratory habits and family
life of the dinosaurs; possible causes of extinction. An
extraordinary new look at the prehistoric life of the dinosaurs by
some of the world's foremost paleontologists, dinosaur
illustrators, and visionary authors. This unique collaboration
produces a spectacular tour of the world of the dinosaurs with
vivid pictures, fascinating new ideas and thought-provoking tales
by a dozen respected dreamers.
Here is the fifth supplement to Dinosaurs: The Encyclopedia, a 1998
American Library Association Outstanding Reference Book. Since the
publication of the acclaimed first volume, a virtual explosion in
the number of exciting discoveries in dinosaur paleontology has
made supplemental volumes necessary and indispensable. Among the
many dramatic events discussed in the fifth supplement are the
discovery of what may be the largest Jurassic theropod specimen yet
collected; the uncovering of evidence of a dinosaur possessing
opposable fingers; and Robert M. Sullivan's reassessment of
Pachycepholasauria. Like the previous supplements, this volume
includes lengthy sections on dinosaurian schematics and genera and
updates the encyclopedia's list of excluded genera. Supplemental
volumes do not repeat information from earlier volumes, but build
upon them: view all volumes on the series page.
Today, we know that a mammoth is an extinct type of elephant that
was covered with long fur and lived in the north country during the
ice ages. But how do you figure out what a mammoth is if you have
no concept of extinction, ice ages, or fossils? Long after the last
mammoth died and was no longer part of the human diet, it still
played a role in human life. Cultures around the world interpreted
the remains of mammoths through the lens of their own worldview and
mythology. When the ancient Greeks saw deposits of giant fossils,
they knew they had discovered the battle fields where the gods had
vanquished the Titans. When the Chinese discovered buried ivory,
they knew they had found dragons' teeth. But as the Age of Reason
dawned, monsters and giants gave way to the scientific method. Yet
the mystery of these mighty bones remained. How did Enlightenment
thinkers overcome centuries of myth and misunderstanding to
reconstruct an unknown animal? The journey to unravel that puzzle
begins in the 1690s with the arrival of new type of ivory on the
European market bearing the exotic name "mammoth." It ends during
the Napoleonic Wars with the first recovery of a frozen mammoth.
The path to figuring out the mammoth was traveled by merchants,
diplomats, missionaries, cranky doctors, collectors of natural
wonders, Swedish POWs, Peter the Great, Ben Franklin, the inventor
of hot chocolate, and even one pirate. McKay brings together dozens
of original documents and illustrations, some ignored for
centuries, to show how this odd assortment of characters solved the
mystery of the mammoth and, in doing so, created the science of
paleontology.
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